Reunion 2002 EC-47 Association Meeting Minutes


Minutes of the EC-47 Association meeting held at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, May 11th, 2002.  Approximately 135 members plus wives and guests in attendance. A call to order at 4:45pm by Dave Brooks/361TEWS.
(note: our President, JC Wheeler, President was just let out of the hospital earlier in the day to attend this meeting and banquet)  
Opening welcome remarks by J.C. were brief, JC thanked everyone for attending the largest turnout to date. He talked about his newest project of writing a second book about the EC47 mission and asked all members to submit any historical docuements. Also mentioned was that 3 of the five officers of the Association were unable to attend (Gordon Bassett/1st VP Dave Eddy/2nd vp and Jim Trozzo/Treasurer.

JC acknowledge the tremendous work done by Jim Coffman for making this 2002 reunion successful.  Also acknowledged were Steve Baxter, the pilot of the C47 flyover at the memorial ceremony on  Friday, and General Charles Coolidge/Vice Commander Air Force Material Command for his support for this year and also for next year's reunion.

Agenda items:1. Reports by Recording Secretary/D. Milton covering last          
                         years minutes and financials,
                     2. Election of officers  
                     3. Site selection & dates for next reunion,  
                     4. Open discussion.

Doug Milton/6994th reviewed last years minutes and a motion from the floor to be accepted.
Treasurer report: D. Milton/6994th(condensed)  EC47 approximate Financial Summary as of Saturday May 12th 2002:
               Revenues     $12500.00
               Expenses     $ 9125.00
               Net Balance  $ 3375.00

JC reported that he will be talking to Jim Trozzo about detailed financials.
Motion to accept was approved.

Dave Brooks handled the next segment of the agenda.

Re-election of officers: A motion from the floor to keep the officers as is. Seconded and all were in favor.
President                    J.C. Wheeler            TEWS
Treasurer                   Jim Trozzo               6994th
First Vice President    Gordon Bassett       TEWS
Second Vice Pres.      Dave Eddy               TEWS
Recording Secretary   Doug Milton             6994th

Unit reps were also re-voted in unanimously:
6994th  Rick Yeh
360th    Fred Sanders  
361st    Dave Brooks
362nd   LeRoy Mulch
In a spirited show of support of each unit reps, they vowed to increase representation of their units, the 6994th again had the highest number present...so there is the challenge!

Site selection and date for reunion 2003:
Dave Brooks took nominations for San Antonio, W-P Air Force base, Las Vegas, Wash. D.C., Branson, MO, and Eglin Air Base.

At this time General Coolidge spoke of his willingness to help should the association vote for W-P, he would assist in getting the Air museum for out banquet locale with the air force band.  He also mention he would support us at Eglin should we decide there.

A vote was taken and Wright Patterson Air Force base was selected with Washington D.C. (NSA) coming in second. A motion to accept and seconded was for W-P. The group showed support for the year 2003 as the time for next reunion but left it up to the Association officers to come up with a date. An autumn date looked appealing.

Door Prizes:  JC thanked Danny Russel6994th @ Pleiku for donating the watch which was won by Bruce Gessel/360th Tews. Other prizes were donated as well including the S.O.F. Antique Airline coins.  Total dollar amount from ticket sales was $474.00

Other: A call for donations to keep the web site up and running. A hat (actually a dish bucket from the kitchen...thanks to Dave Brooks) was passed and approximately $750.00 was collected and presented to JC.
There is a monthly cost for keeping the site running and this will help JC to expand and have backups as well.

JC called for Dave Steiner/361st TEWS to stand up and be congratulated as Dave was the very first EC-47 member to sign up to JC's site when it was first started.  JC again thanked General Coolidge for his help and all the members for their support.

JC asked all to include the words EC47 in the subject line when sending him e-mails.
A motion to call and end to the meeting was accepted at about 6pm and all accepted.  Dave Brooks called the meeting to a close and asked all to now go into the main dining hall for the banquet.

At the banquet, a special thanks to our MC Bill Francis/6994th
for the setup and moving speech of those who were lost during the VN war. it will be remembered for a long time.

Apologies to those names I forgot to mention who had much to add during the meeting.

Respectfully submitted:  D. Milton/Recording Scty-6994th